Get to know Amtrac, the producer making a mark on the international house scene

After discovering UK sounds like dubstep (“before people in the US were making it,” he tells us; “the US stuff is too abrasive... the UK sound was more rhythmic”) and eventually house, he began to produce his own music. Building a reputation for his gently melodic house productions on SoundCloud, remix requests started flooding in from the likes of Two Door Cinema Club, Duke Dumont and Sigur Rós, while Radio 1 big guns like Pete Tong, Annie Mac and Danny Howard got his records on heavy radio rotation.

Now, having built a career as an in-demand remixer and DJ, Amtrac’s turning his attention to his own music with new EP ‘1987’, and his own label, Openers, which pays homage to that most undervalued of club staples, the warm-up DJ.

“Opening DJs play a huge role on the night,” he tells us. “It can go either way, but I’ve had to open many a show and when a DJ nails it, you’re just like ‘damn, that’s the shit!” Let’s hear it for the openers – although somehow, thanks to his millions of plays across YouTube and Spotify, we don’t think Amtrac’s going back to being the first on the bill anytime soon.

Amtrac is in the Smirnoff Sound Collective. Find out more: Mixmag.net/soundcollective